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The founding of a special women’s institution within the Histadrut was the deed solely of women workers. In December 1920, at a convention aimed at creating a new organization for Jewish workers in Palestine, Ada Maimon protested against the poor representation of women. Of the thirty women who were present on this festive occasion and who were relegated to passive participation, not a single one was elected by her women peers to represent the women workers.

At the closing session, Maimon threatened to marshal an election war against the newly-born Histadrut if the elected committee were to deny women workers the right to choose their own representatives or to bar these representatives from participating in the committee. Fearing the consequences, the newly elected leadership of the Histadrut had to reconcile themselves to the demand and the rivals started negotiating the terms. The resolution agreed upon enabled women workers to elect a new women’s council that would be allowed to select two female representatives to the central committee of the Histadrut. Maimon’s demand was thus converted, not for the last time, into a more moderate form of female operation.

Maimon expressed the ongoing dissatisfaction and disappointment of a group of veteran working women who participated in the pioneering enterprise before World War I. These women protested against the leadership of the Zionist Labor Movement who failed to meet women’s expectations of becoming equal partners in the emerging new society. Maimon and a few other women workers transformed this protest into a social movement that aimed to secure women’s interests within the general workers’ organizations.

Pragmatism and compromise enabled both the women workers and the leadership of the Histadrut to establish an autonomous—yet affiliated—women’s council. Accepting an affiliated female organization was intended on the one hand to neutralize the lethal potential of future claims to independence on the part of the workers, while on the other hand making sure that women would be kept under control. Yet this spirit of concession also underlines the fact that Histadrut women had to retreat from their radical ideals and to settle for less, both in terms of equality and of independence.

The elected organization of the Women Workers Movement and Mo’ezet ha-Po’alot did not chart any official set of goals. Nevertheless, in 1931, a decade after the Council of Women Workers was established, a brief set of regulations was published under the auspices of the Histadrut executive committee and with its approval. The declaration, entitled “Regulations of the Council of Women Workers of the Histadrut, 1931,” delineated the goals of the women’s apparatus as follows:

[We will] educate women workers in The Land of IsraelErez Israel in agriculture and train them to perform various urban and non-urban occupations. [We will] establish cooperatives and workshops for women workers and will assist working mothers by creating accommodation for children. [We will propagate] cultural and educational activity among women workers. In order to achieve these goals, the association of women workers is entitled to negotiate with other associations and institutions.

This concise definition conceals the actual spectrum of activity endorsed by Mo’ezet ha-Po’alot; throughout their many years of activity, the women activists in fact manifested a much broader definition. Mo’ezet ha-Po’alot aimed to mold a “new woman” in contrast to the traditional, undereducated, dependent woman of the past; the woman worker was considered an independent human being who, like her male counterpart, was entitled to enjoy equality of rights and duties. As feminists, leaders of Mo’ezet ha-Po’alot did not reject the existence of biological differences between the sexes, but they rejected their social and economic implications.

Ending the historic discrimination against women in all aspects of life was another goal. To accomplish this, activists of Mo’ezet ha-Po’alot avowed, women should be socially and politically educated. Political savvy and training would empower women and thus prepare them for their new role as partners in the Zionist-Socialist endeavor. Hence collaborating with the Histadrut, which had political as well as economic clout, was pivotal in Mo’ezet ha-Po’alot’s plan to produce a new type of woman. Did the affiliation with the Histadrut benefit women?

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In the struggle between the forces of conservatism in the Histadrut, represented by members of the establishment, and the forces of innovation, represented by the members of the women workers’ movement, the former almost always predominated. The women who belonged to the Histadrut, like all women, seldom succeeded in deviating from the traditional women’s roles and duties apportioned to them. The marginality of the Council of Women Workers in the Histadrut establishment and the relative powerlessness of the constituency of working women in the Yishuv labor market brought about the transition from a movement in which working women occupied the center of the movement (as was the case in the 1920s) to a movement in which wives of Histadrut members, nearly all homemakers, became a principal force; from a movement striving for independence, to an institutional arm of collaboration, with a field of operation anchored in the tradition of women’s volunteer work.

Nevertheless, the movement, via its local chapters, lost no opportunity to inject the special concerns of women, working women, and homemakers alike, into the public agenda. This effort was made on two principal planes: publicizing the special problems of the woman worker in the labor market, as well as those of the mother working in her home; and searching for ways, some quite novel, to solve these problems. In terms of the period under discussion, even the little that was accomplished was a great deal.

Na’amat

In 1976 Mo’ezet Ha-Po’a lot changed its name to Na’amat, The Movement of Working Momen and Volunteers. Na’amat is subordinated to the Va’ada Merakezet, the central apparatus of the Histadrut. The organization includes Jewish, Arab, and Druse women, from urban as well as agricultural centers. Na’amat also includes all the overseas Pioneer Women groups.

Since the 1970s Na’amat’s proclaimed goals have been changed somewhat. They now comprise not only the improvement of women’s working conditions and ensuring their rights, but also expanded political education and the encouragement of volunteerism.

The organizational structure of the movement has not changed significantly. The women’s convention has remained the basic forum for Histadrut women to elect their representatives and the council remains the forum which deals with the movement’s policies. As in the past, an active secretariat presides over the other bodies and is in charge of all Na’amat activities. Its representatives report to the Histadrut’s management. Na’amat’s local branches are under the supervision of those of the Histadrut.

For several decades Na’amat has been active in areas of women’s equality, collaborating with members of the Lit. "assembly." The 120-member parliament of the State of Israel.Knesset in initiating or advancing laws on abortion, widows’ rights, social rights for homemakers, and more. Na’amat also provides legal assistance to women and operates kindergartens and after-school social and educational activities for women and their children. As in the early period of statehood, Na’amat helps new immigrants and their families in the absorption centers. Na’amat also strives to advance young, unmarried women. Aware of the centrality of the military in Israeli society, its activists refuse to accept any changes in the draft or in the status of women soldiers that might impair women’s chances of attaining equality. Devar ha-Po’elet, the magazine of the former Mo’ezet Ha-Po’a lot, has changed its name and become Na’amat Monthly.